The quality, brightness and contrast of the image formed by a rear projection microdisplay system are strongly affected by the choice of the projection screen. Careful screen selection is necessary to achieve optimal performance for a given application. Critical image quality data such as resolution, image noise, diffuse reflectance, and gain have been measured for a representative group of commercially available screens. The correlation between screen efficiency and image noise is discussed, with particular relevance for close-viewing rear projection display applications. The nature of the image noise is probed and is found to vary with the screen type.